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Topic: Dental X-Ray Radiation :( (Read 389 times)

I went to a new dentist today and had like 12 x-rays taken, and of course, being a HA sufferer, I'm now super worried about radiation. I asked the lady doing the imaging about it, and she told me she uses digital x-rays (vs. film) and that it's like 90% less radiation exposure so there's nothing to worry about. Is this true?

I know this may sound silly, but I'm really worried that somehow the digital x-ray machine malfunctioned and I got exposed to way more radiation than normal. I read online that a malfunction is morel likely to go undetected in a digital machine.

Is anyone here a dentist, radiologist, or dental/radiology assistant that would know about this? How likely is it that one of these new digital x-ray machines could malfunction and overdose me with radiation?

I am not a dental/radiology assistant, but I can assure you that you are definitely over thinking this! Come on, people without anxiety wouldn't even question the machine malfunctioning. But, I understand why you are worried... HA is pretty horrible.

People get X-Rays all the time... I think if they were really that horrible, they wouldn't be used. Don't worry too much about this one.

I know that what you're saying makes sense, a lot more sense than what my brain is telling me. Honestly, I don't even know why this particular fear is so bad or sudden. I've had x-rays before and have never overthought it, but this time I can't get the catastrophic though out of my mind, as ridiculous as it may sound.

I've actually been doing great with HA for the last few months, and I've really been working hard to get it under control. The only reason I even reached out and posted on here is because I've been nauseated, had jaw pain, and have had a headache all day since I got the x-rays done, which sent my HA into overdrive. I know these symptoms could be unrelated or a direct result of my anxiety, but there's that stupid, nagging part of my brain shouting "it's radiation poisoning from the x-rays" at me and it's hard for me to get it under control.

Anyways, thanks for responding. I appreciate you taking the time to reach out to me.

Our brains like to connect all these "symptoms" together to create some horrible situation that isn't even true. Catastrophic thinking! You don't have radiation poisoning, and you know that. It's just a coincidence. Your jaw probably hurts from having it open at the dentist.

It's great that you've been getting your HA under control; don't let this little thing set you back! Good luck.

I am actually an x-ray tech and used to be a dental assistant before xray school :) There I no way it could have malfunctioned. They are all programed with an emergency switch if something were to happen, but I have worked with hundreds of machines and have never heard of such a thing or thought about it. HA is the worst thing ever - I have it so badly with all kinds of things, but not radiation. I have worked in it for about 12 years - pregnant twice and worked the whole time. It is a lot safer than you can even imagine. I hope this helped :)

I had a huge amount of dental work done - basically, every tooth root canaled, ground down to the gumline, surgery for it, drilled into, and fitting with permanent caps. This came with a very very large number of x-rays, for obvious reasons. Even if it did malfunction - though it almost definitely did not - I would've gotten many times the amount of radiation you did. so try not to worry too much

aec711, it's definitely good to know that there's an emergency switch on those! That's what I was hoping, just that there was some kind of safety control on it or something to make sure it doesn't malfunction. I've never thought about radiation either until this visit for some reason. HA is so crazy like that! My jaw has been hurting today a lot, so I've read these replies like 10 times trying to calm myself down and remind myself that it's not from the radiation.

Lunatone, I'm sorry you've had so much dental work done, but I do appreciate you sharing that with me. I actually haven't been to the dentist in a long time, and I think that might be part of why I'm having so much anxiety. I have to get some cavities filled soon, and even going in there just for the x-rays and initial exam stressed me out and I think it just gave me HA. If you've been through that much and you're still alive and well and cancer free, I'm definitely encouraged by that.

Believe it or not I am in the dental field (with extreme HA of oral concern) I guess from things I have seen. As far as the xrays? An individual xray is 500 times less radiation than a ct scan. Smalllll. Its about equal to watching your tv or using your microwave or even walking outside. No worries! As far as the equipment malfunctioning yes we have had that happen with our panorex machine which is the one that takes the picture of your whole head and jaw and some neck area as well. This usually only happens if the patient moves or is too tall or too short etc. However it will STOP not continue with the spin. The good thing is that by law they are checked wach year by the radiology dept for your state to make sure that everything is running as it should. Dont worry, you arent being overexposed with dental xrays. Its the larger things I would worry about such as CT and mammogram. Must dos, but not to be overdone.

Well it's really good to know that the machines will shut off and not keep going if there's an issue!

I didn't know that you are exposed to that much (or should I say that little) radiation during a flight! I don't even think about the radiation when I'm flying! That's a really good thing to know because pilots fly all the time and they aren't all getting cancer, so I guess if they're ok than I'm ok getting x-rays.